People Cannot Stop Sharing This Girl's Description Of Her Life With Autism

Sep 19, 2018 by apost team

Kids often shock us with their insight and wit, and social media lets parents share some of the best stories and one-liners with the world. Kym Scott took to Twitter to reveal a short story by her daughter, Libby, who has autism. The story quickly went viral, spreading greater awareness about autism and life on the spectrum.

The subject of Libby's story was "daily struggle". There's a lot of misunderstanding and unawareness surrounding autism; people don't understand the variances of the condition and how it impacts the individuals who have it. Some people with autism require round-the-clock care and can't speak while others are able to live full lives, albeit with some differences in social perception and communication.

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Libby described her life with autism as being like "a piece of toast that doesn't fit in the toaster."

From birth to age five, Libby developed just like any other healthy child. Then, she hit a set back, and her parents realized that her language skills made it difficult for her to communicate.

"And to get it into the toaster, you have to sort of bend it out of shape and cram it in."

Libby rarely chooses reads or writes despite the fact her mother describes her as a "creative and thoughtful" child. However, when the girl's grandmother asked her what autism felt like, the 10-year-old wowed everyone by writing a short story called "The Life of a Perfectionist."

The story starts off with Libby laying on her bed. All is still and peaceful until she notices the candles near her are out of order. She gets up, rearranges them and falls back asleep.

As the day progresses, everyday moments are disrupted by her autism. Her favorite song is ruined when she realizes it only has 98 words, not 100. She writes to the singer, Taylor Swift, and even gets a response. Swift apologizes to Libby for the discomfort but says she can't change her song.

Later, Libby goes swimming, but she is distraught by the fact the Skittles the life guard is eating aren't ordered by color. She approaches him, but his gruff tone scares her off. She has to fight the growing irritation by all of the things out of place in the world. Eventually, her mind is distracted when she meets a new friend named Claire.

But Claire's armbands don't match.

Since Kym Scott shared her daughter's story on Twitter, it has been shared more than 22,000 times and generated over 100,000 comments. First-hand accounts like Lbby's story offer all of us a deeper understanding of people with autism, making the world a kinder, more tolerant place one person at a time.

Do you know someone with autism, or do you have autism yourself? What's one thing you'd like the rest of the world to know? Let us know in the comments, and spread the word so more people can understand what it's really like to live with autism.